


The End Of The World

by flawedamythyst



Series: Winterhawk Tumblr ficlets [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 14:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawedamythyst/pseuds/flawedamythyst
Summary: Bucky and Clint find themselves on a beach at the end of the world.





	The End Of The World

Clint walked about halfway down the beach before sitting down, staring across the waves to the distant horizon. “We made it,” he said flatly as Bucky settled beside him. “The end of the world.”

It had been Tony’s idea to start with, once they’d all realised that they’d have to keep moving, because settling somewhere just created a target and meant they had to keep travelling further and further from home to get supplies. Far better not to have a home and just use wherever they found enough food for a few days as a temporary base, then move on when it was empty.

“I don’t work like that,” Tony had said. “Just wandering around wherever, living from day to day - I need a long-term goal, even if it’s a stupid one. Let’s go to the beach, look at the sea, maybe have a swim and pretend we’re on a beach holiday - oh, I bet we can find surfboards in Malibu, there will always be surfboards in Malibu.”

Tony had died in Utah but they’d stuck to his plan, mostly because no one else could come up with a better one.

“You know the world is a globe, right?” said Bucky, squinting against the sun as the wind tangled his hair. “This ain’t the end of anything, it just keeps going on.”

Clint shrugged. “Isn’t that what we thought about the human race?”

That shut Bucky up. Tony hadn’t been the first of them to die, and he hadn’t been the last. Bucky was still smarting from watching Steve go down, and that had been a month back now.

Months had felt more like decades since the whole world went to shit.

“Fuck off,” muttered Bucky. He picked up a handful of sand and watched it seep out of his hand. They hadn’t seen any other actual people since Steve, and he was beginning to think that he and Clint were it now. For as long as they could keep holding on.

Clint let out a long sigh, bringing his knees up so he could wrap his arms around them. He didn’t say anything, just kept staring out at the waves while Bucky kept an eye out for movement, back prickling with how exposed they were right now.

He wasn’t about to suggest moving on though, mostly because he had no idea where they’d go now. What was the sense of the two of them struggling on when there was pretty much nothing left to live for?

“I can’t believe it’s us,” said Clint, long minutes later. “After- after Natasha died, I figured I was living on borrowed time. How the hell did I make it this far?”

Bucky didn’t have an answer to that, because he’d thought the same thing more than once. If Steve hadn’t made it, how the fuck had the one-armed guy and the human embodiment of disaster kept going?

The sun was starting to set and Bucky eyed it, thinking about how much more dangerous this beach was going to get once it was dark. They should get up, find a place for the night, go over their supplies and make a plan for what to do next.

He didn’t move though, just watched the sun descend towards the sea until Clint let out a sigh and tipped sideways, resting his head on Bucky’s shoulder.

“Guess I coulda done worse for an apocalypse partner,” he said.

Bucky wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in closer, ignoring how weird it felt because they didn’t _do_ this. They fucked in the middle of the night when they were holed up somewhere safe, and they gave each other frantic ‘we’re alive’ handjobs when they’d escaped from yet another fucked up situation when they should, by all rights, have died, but they didn’t cuddle. They didn’t say romantic shit, or act like anything other than friends who had spent a few days too many in each other’s company and couldn’t stop bitching at each other.

But they needed a new long-term plan, and maybe this could be it. Maybe being the last people alive didn’t have to be the only reason they stayed together.

Bucky leaned over and kissed Clint’s forehead. “Yeah, me too,” he said, then made himself let go and stand up. “Come on, I think I saw a snack bar that we can probably barricade ourselves inside.”

Clint took one last look at the sunset, then stood up to follow him.


End file.
